Hello everyone and welcome to the UTFS [heca;tomb] release devlog! ♥️

Our visual novel has been released November 1st (so only around 2-3 days ago), so I think it's time to leave a little devlog, talking about the development, future of the project & series and about my emotional state after the release as well. 

So, as we Germans love to say "Nicht lang schnacken, Kopf in Nacken!" and let's go!

The development of [heca;tomb] was pretty swift and unproblematic this time around.

There wasn't much of a hiccup, interpersonal issues in the team or just general disorder. The only thing really standing in my way of getting the full story our there was A) the intense workload I was getting on my dayjob, B) the amount of exams getting thrown at my face by my college and C) my own naivety.

I seriously thought I would get 60k+ words, 11+ sprites with varying clothes+expressions, as well as all the backgrounds, potential CGs, voice lines AND coding done within two months. - But after realising with all the things I had to do IRL, it just wasn't feasible.

So, we decided to put out a demo for JAD Jam, since it was still within the rules. This was also better for my own mental health; I wasn't stressing myself AS much, as I would have otherwise.
And the only thing I was stressing out with at the end was getting the itch page and all the sfx plus voice lines implemented into the script 24 hours before deadline. I seriously underestimated how long it would take me to find the fitting effort / bark line for each dialogue line AND the sfx according to what's happening. 🥲
(We actually submitted the game 15 minutes, before deadline. Which is... somewhat of a pattern for me apparently. Hahaha...ha...)

As I usually tend to say, the future for Under The False Sky looks bright!

Aside from [heca;tomb], there is another project in the plans called "Kein:[Über]Leben" !(Yes, a German title–shocker, I know. But don't worry, the visual novel itself is going to be in English). Its set to be made and released for this year's Winter VN Jam. 

You might think now:
"Wait, Anna. Didn't you release Blood:Covered Snow, your first released UTFS story for last year's Winter VN Jam?? 😱"
That's absolutely correct, person that has absolutely asked this question just now.

We are making this entry as homage to the first UTFS entry which was released for last Winter VN Jam. It is going to depict the story of Mari (yes, our queen is returning) and her fiancée, Cain (Micah's biological father). [Reminder; that this takes place before B:CS and when Micah was only 4 years old.] It is going to be just a short story with an estimate of 10k words.

"But what about [heca;tomb]?"
Good question, thank you that you've asked, unknown person! Of course, we are still working on [heca;tomb]! It's set to be completed and released somewhere around spring. I am planning to have the script written by January / February and the rest done by  March. 
I have my final exams in May, so I want to take April to study appropriately for them. Since the sprites done are for the majority as well as some of the backgrounds, it will definitely be easier for me to get the rest done.

"What about your main story for UTFS? You keep on mentioning it."
Man, unknown person. You ask the perfect questions! Of course, the main story is still a thing! You actually meet the main protagonist in [heca;tomb], even if only for a brief moment. I absolutely want to start with the main story soon. But [heca;tomb] and Kein:[Über]Leben come first. 

And then; after their releases and my finals etc. I will start with the main story. 

To be honest? I'm tired. Well, I'm tired after every release actually, haha.  I'm glad, that it's out and about, that I can finally catch a break and breathe for a moment, but I'm already stressing myself out over numbers and analytics.

I know JAD is a smaller jam (compared to the jams I made previous releases to), but seeing that it doesn't get as much traffic as my other VNs bothers my mind-no matter how rationally I try to explain those thoughts away. And it bothers me even more, that it bothers me; like can't I just move on and be productive?! Nah, apparently I can't. 

Apparently the only thing I can do is staring at the analytics screen.

I will get over it, but I absolutely hate this part of releasing a project to the world and it being perceived by other people. :)

And don't get me wrong! I'm handling this way better than I used to. I'm looking forward to the future as well as toward future releases!

Now that we are coming to the end of this devlog. I just want to say thank you (as always, haha)! ♥️

Thank you so much for reading this devlog, being part of this journey!
And if you've played the demo - thank you so much for playing!!

I'm so grateful for my amazing team, that have contributed and helped on the project!
I couldn't have done it without you guys!! 😭♥️